


A Favor Between Magical Girls

by Rin_the_Shadow



Category: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bisexual Female Character, F/F, Lesbian Character, New Relationship, Some hurt/comfort, Working Past Internalized Homophobia, as a matter of fact girls can love girls, balancing magical girl and normal life, but also not quite that, but less than the last one, i'm admittedly not entirely sure, kind of the if you do anything to hurt her talk?, kyoko can be a bit coarse at times, kyoko is pretty much constantly eating, mentions of past magic-induced attempted suicide, possible one-sided Kyoko/Sayaka, stealth looking out for each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-26
Updated: 2020-01-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:47:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22411975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rin_the_Shadow/pseuds/Rin_the_Shadow
Summary: Two weeks ago, Hitomi confessed, and Sayaka followed it up with her own confession. Kyoko notices the change in her fellow magical girl, and upon learning what’s happened, she decides it’s time to meet the girlfriend.
Relationships: Miki Sayaka & Sakura Kyouko, Miki Sayaka & Shizuki Hitomi, Miki Sayaka/Shizuki Hitomi
Comments: 8
Kudos: 25





	A Favor Between Magical Girls

It had been almost two weeks since they had started dating. In some ways, it was still strange to Hitomi, not so much because she was dating a girl, or because of their mutual friendship with Madoka, or even because Sayaka had been her friend for so long before, but because of the second life she led when the rest of Mitakihara was asleep.

She had seen her Soul Gem. She had come within centimeters of holding it, and had only stopped because Sayaka seemed so uncomfortable with the idea. But that was as far as she had let her in on that life. She had wanted _some_ part of her life that could still be normal, and when she was honest with herself, Hitomi hadn’t been the slightest bit upset about obliging her. Her experience with the world of magical girls had not been a pleasant one, with her becoming the victim of a witch’s kiss and nearly killing herself under its influence. For weeks after, she had believed what the doctors said when they told her it was a mass hallucination, and finding out otherwise had provided only minimal relief. It could still happen again, but at least it wasn’t anything wrong with her own body.

Of course, that didn’t mean she couldn’t still support Sayaka in her work as a magical girl. She would still sit by her when she came back exhausted from a witch hunt, and card her fingers through her hair as she vented about her quarrels with other girls, or cleaned her Soul Gem, though she still wasn’t entirely comfortable with that. She suspected part of it was that Sayaka thought _she_ was unnerved by the Grief Seeds she used to clean it. It wasn’t an unfair assumption, but it wasn’t as bad as what she likely thought.

And Sayaka would do the same for her, cheering her on and sending her encouraging notes as she went about all her clubs and activities, taking her for runs or reminding her to eat when she got too stressed out from all the pressure to measure up, letting her unload all the stress that piled up. Sometimes, she would call her late at night, when the memory of the witch’s kiss became too much for her, and Sayaka would listen on the other end of the line as she gasped and sniffled, begging for reassurance that it hadn’t been just her. If it seemed bad, she would ask, “Do you want me to come over?” It had been a shock to Hitomi the first time, but by now, she knew that if she offered, and if she said yes, Sayaka would be over in minutes, and would sit by her or hold her until she could no longer feel the phantom marks on her skin.

Once, she imagined she saw a white cape trailing behind her as she leapt up to her window sill, but when she blinked, it had vanished.

Hitomi smiled at the memory of her lady knight in the white cape. Even if the cape had only been a dream, well, it wasn’t the kind of dream she’d be opposed to having again sometime.

That was as far as Sayaka let her in on her magical girl life, and as far as Hitomi _wanted_ to be let in on it. That was the way they had decided things should be, and that was the way they were happiest. It might change someday, but for now, this was what was best.

But one day, after school, someone else had decided otherwise. Hitomi had gotten Sayaka’s text shortly after her test prep class. _Familiar near the bus stop. Trying to run. Need to stop it. Text when done._

 _You better. ;) Good luck._ As she typed out her reply, she took a breath, reminding herself what a familiar was. Not a witch, not yet. But if it killed someone, it might become one. Sayaka’s killing it now would keep it from killing anyone else. She wouldn’t get a Grief Seed from it, but it was important to her that it didn’t kill anyone.

“So, you’re the one she’s moved on for, huh?” Hitomi jumped at the unfamiliar voice as its owner punctuated the sentence with the wet crunch of an apple.

For a split second, she couldn’t hear anything but the thundering of her heartbeat in her own ears, the rush of blood through her head as every nerve in her body screamed for her to run. Sayaka hadn’t told anyone else about Kyosuke or her relationship with Hitomi except for Madoka, and she had made it more than clear that she didn’t want her getting caught up in the magical girl scene. Which meant this person would have to be someone who knew she had recently made a contract and had pieced it together from there. Another magical girl. And considering what Sayaka had to say about _them_ …

If she were a character in one of Sayaka’s manga, she’d steel her composure, then turn and walk away. But this wasn’t one of those manga, and she stood rooted to the spot. It was probably for the best. If she tried to run, she might attack.

“Hey, don’t freak out on me,” she quipped. “I just wanted to see what was up, you know?” She took another bite of the apple, speaking as she chewed. “People don’t really drop their wishes. Not that I’d expect you to get that. But hey, if you got enough of an idea of me not to fight, she’s gotta have told you something.” She swallowed, her grin absolutely shark-like. “Right?”

Hitomi gave a huff of annoyance which was much shakier than she would have liked it to be. This wasn’t a game she wanted to play.

“C’mon, I’m not that scary, right?” She reached into the bag she had strung across her shoulders, holding out a second apple. “Here. Consider it a good-will gesture. Y’know, like a favor between magical girls or something.”

If she didn’t take it, she had at least an inkling of what might happen. But then again, if magical girls could heal from anything, how did she know it wasn’t poisoned? _A favor between magical girls_ … She’d offered something like that before in a much different context. If she was already going on about how Sayaka must have told her things, did she really think she wouldn’t have mentioned that one of them had offered to break Kyosuke’s arms and legs for her?

“I’m not a magical girl,” Hitomi finally forced herself to answer.

“Pssh.” The girl waved her hand, resting the other on a cocked hip. “So a favor to Sayaka then. Big difference.”

“You’re…Kyoko Sakura, aren’t you?”

She took another particularly messy bite from the first apple. “Heh…so she _has_ told you something. Probably told you a lot if you’ve got a name to go with me.” Swallowing harshly, she continued. “She probably told you about Kyuubey, too, huh? Damn rat…”

Was she referring to Sayaka or to Kyuubey? If she’d had to guess based on her tone alone, she would almost certainly have assumed Kyuubey. Sayaka didn’t know what he was, and she’d used a variety of different things to describe him. _Weasel, demon, hellspawn beast, lying monster_. None of them were particularly flattering. But then again, the words she used for other magical girls hadn’t always been the most favorable ones either.

“Hey, chill out Snow White. It’s not like I’m gonna poison you. Even if your girlfriend is pretty cute.” Kyoko crunched into the apple again, turning it to let herself access the unbroken skin as she put the second one back into her bag. “But new magical girls tend to be fragile, y’know? You go screwing around with ‘em, it never ends well.”

“Is that why you picked so many fights with her, then?” The words were out before she could stop them. Kyoko nearly choked on her latest bite, swallowing hard and glaring at her. She knew better than to go around provoking experienced magical girls, but something Kyoko said—no, a _lot_ of what Kyoko had said made a hot anger twist in her stomach. Screwing around? Really? She hadn’t seen half of what they’d had to unlearn to get to the point they were at. That wasn’t something she was going to put up with even if she _was_ just a human.

“If you know I’m a magical girl, is that really something you wanna go dragging up?” For a moment, Hitomi thought she might attack. After all, she had picked a fight with a _fragile new magical girl_ just for fighting a Familiar. But then she sighed and shook her head. “Ah, shit. Look, that’s not really something I wanna get into right now. That’s really just something between me and her, y’know? And besides, it’s getting a bit late. About the time witches like to go hunting and stuff. So just…lemme take you back to wherever you live and call it even. A favor from one magical girl to another.”

Hitomi felt the skin of her neck begin to crawl and she resisted the urge to drag her nails over it, trying to rip off a witch’s kiss that wasn’t there. “Fine.” Her answer was far too short, but even if something had changed in her just now, it didn’t erase what she had said before.

As they walked, Kyoko continued speaking and chomping on her food. “So look, I didn’t make the best impression. Even I can admit that much. But what I really wanted to talk about,” another harsh chomp, “was Kyuubey.”

Even if she hadn’t replied, she was almost certain Kyoko would have continued. “Ah, yes. The damn rat.”

Kyoko threw back her head and barked out a laugh. “Ah, man. Sorry, wouldn’t have thought you were the type…” She shook her head. “Sorry. Sayaka doesn’t tell me much about you. Just mentioned she didn’t need her wish to keep fighting anymore. Had to figure the rest out myself, so I didn’t really know what to expect.”

She threw away the apple core and immediately began fishing through her bag for another. Absently, Hitomi wondered if it was the same one she’d offered her earlier.

“But basically,” she spoke around her next mouthful. “I figured if she doesn’t tell us that much about you, she might not mention much stuff around this whole shebang.”

“She’s mentioned enough,” Hitomi answered. She’d mentioned everything she thought was important for her to know, everything she could handle telling her and everything _she_ could handle Sayaka telling her _._

“Yeah, okay, but she’s still new at this whole thing, right? So there’s bound to be stuff she doesn’t know about yet. I’ll get it through _her_ head next time we fight or whatever, she’ll be fine. But with _you_ , it’s a little different.”

Honestly, she could see why Sayaka didn’t like other magical girls too much. Especially if this wasn’t even what they were like at their worst.

“Basically, where the witches go? Who gets kissed and shit? I don’t think that’s an accident.” Kyoko started to take another bite, but then at the last minute, she moved her hand back. “When we filled up our Grief Seeds, Kyuubey always took them away, said it was for safety or something like that. He also said witches mostly hang out in hidden spaces. It’s a lot easier to set up your labyrinth where there’s no people, I guess.”

Hitomi found herself thinking back to the legends of the gods of death, gathering and festering in places where people died horribly, luring others in to share their fates. It almost fit, since they would keep going until a magical girl killed them and took their Grief Seed.

“But you know, I’ve seen witches turn up in some awful busy places. And don’t even get me started on the familiars. The bus stop? Gimme a break.”

 _Why are you telling me this?_ Hitomi wanted to ask. It didn’t make sense, not when she wasn’t a magical girl and Kyoko wasn’t even expecting her to pass that information onto Sayaka.

“It’s just a hunch for now, but if you see a weird lookin’ cat, you get out of there. I don’t care where you are. Just run and get as far away as you can. Call Sayaka. Tell her to come get you. I don’t care. Just run. Cause if you stick around, a witch might turn up. You get what I’m saying?”

Kyuubey would plant… “But why would he do something like that? I thought he recruited you to fight the witches, so why—”

“Dunno.” Kyoko gnawed at the edge of the apple, not quite biting down. “Like I said, it’s just a hunch. But you should be careful if you don’t wanna get caught up in all that. Oh yeah,” she finally bit through. “You should tell Sayaka to keep ahold of her next Grief Seed once it gets loaded. I’ve got an idea for how to stretch ‘em out a bit longer. Dunno if it’ll work yet, though.”

Perhaps she should have left it at that, but some part of Hitomi was still a bit annoyed at some of her comments from before. The rest of her still thought they would cause a lot fewer problems for themselves if they didn’t resort to so much of this behind-the-back secrecy. “This seems like a pretty big favor for something that’s just between magical girls.”

“Heh…” Kyoko suddenly looked away, rubbing a hand over the back of her neck. “Just reminds me of someone I knew once, that’s all.”

They stopped outside the front gate to Hitomi’s house. “Wait here,” Kyoko said, suddenly on alert, lifting her bag of apples over her head and shoving the strap into her hands. Hitomi saw her fidgeting with something around her finger. Even with only a reddish glow to tell her what was happening, she knew she’d taken a ring and transformed it.

Without showing her the gem, she hopped over the gate like it was nothing and disappeared. Hitomi had always considered her home to be in a good neighborhood, a safe one. That was another thing she had let go of as she learned about the world of magical girls. Witches didn’t care where you were from, only that you gave them what they were looking for. Maybe that was part of why Sayaka was always on her not to stress, always making sure she ate and took breaks…

But before she could fully follow that thought, Kyoko was back, snatching the apples away and slipping a ring back onto her finger. “Looks good. You should hurry and get inside. I’ll probably head out soon myself.”

It was a lie and they both new it, even as Hitomi’s phone buzzed with Sayaka’s text. _Got the familiar. Still want me to come over?_

 _Of course,_ she replied.

And perhaps she should have turned and gone inside without a word. Yet she found herself pausing to look back at this strange other part of her friend’s life. “I’m glad,” she said. If the magical girl scene was really as bad as they made it sound… “I’m glad she’s got someone like you looking out for her.” She smiled. “You should let her know what you’re really like sometime.” _Or I will_.

“Heh,” she shrugged. “We’ll see.”

With that, Hitomi turned and went inside, not looking back until she reached her room and pulled back the curtain. Just outside the gate, Kyoko was still surveying the area, and would probably continue to do so until Sayaka arrived, leaving just in time to avoid her seeing she had been there.

There was still so much she didn’t understand about magical girls, so much she still wasn’t sure if she was ready to understand. Things were shifting around in ways she couldn’t even see, that she wasn’t sure if any of them could see. But whatever this was, maybe it would turn out for the best. Until then, they would face it together.

**Author's Note:**

> While I ended up writing much less of Sayaka on the scene than I had expected to, Kyoko ended up being a surprisingly fun character to write, once I got a grip on what she wanted to do. She's especially fun to write opposite Hitomi, who is generally very proper and almost formal in her mannerisms. I kind of see Kyoko in this fic as somewhere during her episode 7 characterization. She hasn't quite softened as openly as she is in episodes 8 and 9, but she's at a point where she's admitted at least to herself, if no one else, that Sayaka isn't someone she wants to see get punched around by life.
> 
> From Sayaka's end, while she may not have the same animosity towards Kyoko that she did pre-episode 7, the last episodes with them made it pretty clear she wasn't fully able to move on from her first impression until the very end, and Kyoko probably gets a little badgery towards her when she realizes she's going to be okay. At this point, Sayaka still can't quite tell the difference between that and how she was before. And because I kicked the timeline five inches to the left, I figured why not take more time for that?
> 
> In any event, please let me know what you think!  
> ~Rin


End file.
